Robert F Erburu

David Z. Zeidberg, head of special collections at the university research library at UCLA, was appointed director of the Huntington Library in San Marino on Friday. Zeidberg succeeds the late William A. Moffett to become the seventh person to head the prestigious Huntington Library since 1915, when Henry Huntington appointed the first librarian to oversee his growing collection of rare books and manuscripts.

C. C. Johnson Spink, the last publisher from the family that founded The Sporting News more than 100 years ago, has died. He was 75. Spink died Thursday in St. Louis of an embolism. Robert F. Erburu, chairman and chief executive officer of the Times Mirror Co., which bought the sports publication in 1977, said: "Johnson Spink inherited and then enhanced a great institution in The Sporting News.

Times Mirror Co. said Tuesday that it has acquired the Washington-based government and political affairs weekly National Journal for an undisclosed sum. Anthony Stout, one of the journal's original founders and its owner since 1975, sold Times Mirror his 80% interest in the publication. Times Mirror purchased the remaining 20% stake from Washington Post Co. Times Mirror is a diversified media company that publishes a number of newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times.

A federal court in Dallas on Friday approved a settlement between Times Mirror Co. and employees of the Dallas Times Herald who had filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the disposition of surplus assets in the newspaper's pension fund when Times Mirror sold the paper in 1986. Under the agreement, Los Angeles-based Times Mirror will add $7.1 million to an estimated $11.4 million that participants had earned under the defined benefit pension plan. The additional funds will increase each employee's accrued benefits by about 50% if approved by the Internal Revenue Service, Times Mirror said.

Kathryn Sarzotti Erburu, who immigrated to Ventura with her Italian parents at the beginning of the 20th century, died Tuesday of complications from old age at her Ojai home, said her son, Robert. She was 107. Less than 1% of the population lives beyond the century mark, according to the Gerontology Research Group at UCLA. For her 100th birthday in 1999, NBC's "Today Show" displayed a photograph of her engaged in a favorite pursuit: riding her stationary bicycle, her son said.

Dow W. Carpenter, a retired senior vice president of Times Mirror Co. who oversaw its book and magazine publishing operations during much of his career, died Tuesday while vacationing in Kennebunkport, Maine. He was 75, and suffered from heart disease. In the early 1960s, while he was a consultant with the management consultant firm of McKinsey & Co.

Times Mirror said Thursday that it will sell its Los Angeles-based directory printing business to a unit of GTE as part of a corporate restructuring. The price for Times Mirror Press wasn't disclosed, although a spokeswoman for GTE Directories Corp. said that it will be an all-cash purchase. GTE is a longtime customer of Times Mirror Press. The deal is subject to signing of a definitive contract and is expected to be completed in January.

For the first time in its 163-year history, the Pontifical Order of the Knights of St. Gregory enrolled eight women in the Roman Catholic order during investiture ceremonies at St. Vibiana's Cathedral on March 13. The eight women, as well as 26 men honored by the Pope, were nominated by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles. The order, established in 1831, seeks to recognize those who have "promoted the interests of society, the church and the Holy See."

William H. Cowles III, president and publisher of the two Spokane daily newspapers, died after suffering a heart attack while jogging near his home. Cowles, 60, was publisher of the Spokane Chronicle and Spokesman-Review. He was taken to Spokane's Sacred Heart Medical Center where he was pronounced dead after being stricken on Saturday.

Times Mirror Co., taking large one-time charges in the fourth quarter of 1991, reported a $13-million loss for the period, the company's first quarterly loss since its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1964. Without the charges, fourth-quarter profit would have been up 17.5% to $53.6 million, or 42 cents a share. The company said it cut debt by more than $140 million during the year, due mainly to better management of working capital and reduced capital expenditures.